75 Books...More or Less! discussion
Archive (2020 GR Completed)
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Elyse's 300-Book Challenge!
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I do so well with reviews for about three quarters of the year but by Oct-Nov I start getting behind. I have like 15 to write for last year's books. Blahhhh.
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I get to the point where I don't want to go 2 years before reading the next book so I wait till they're done and then promptly forget about them. lol. So it helps to have a group and a challenge to tackle them!
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Yes! Which is where I am on some of them!
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Twelve Patients: Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital - Eric Manheimer 3/5Audible Audio.
This book was okay. Sometimes an author should not narrate their own books. Eric Manheimer is a doctor. He knows how to remove himself and emotion from conversation. He's done that in this book. He's very unemotional, bland, monotone, boring. I might've enjoyed it more with a different narrator or maybe just reading it. Some of the patients' stories was just too detailed. I want to know about why they are patients, not necessarily why they fled their country when it had nothing to do with their being a patient. I liked that he went to college at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. I like when strangers know NH! I enjoy the TV show, New Amsterdam, and will continue watching it. There's nothing similar between the two though. Mediocre first book finished of the year.
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Parable of the Sower - Damian Duffy, Octavia Butler, John Jennings 3/5NetGalley ARC.
I have not read the novel Parable of the Sower. In fact, I've never read an Octavia Butler book. Yet. She is definitely an author I want to read, I just haven't been in the situation to pick one up. That being said, this graphic novel was okay. I like color to my illustrations and there was none. The illustrations in this graphic novel look like sketches and I didn't really like that. I liked the gist of the story and it definitely made me more interested in the novel series.
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The Secret Garden Cookbook - Amy Cotler 4/5NetGalley ARC.
Truth: I've never read The Secret Garden. *gasp* I KNOW. Crazy. I have seen the movie. Or one of them. Not the newest one. One that was made in the 1990's, I think. So I do know the gist. And this was a fun cookbook, much like the The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family I read and reviewed last year. These cookbooks are good for fans of those books or just for fans of cooking old-fashioned recipes. I liked a few of the recipes in this book and the little snippets about The Secret Garden and the quotes from the book made me want to read it so I will have to add it to this year's reading list!
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Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) - Cassandra Clare 5/5Home Library Hardcover.
After over 10 years since last reading, still 5 stars. The writing in this is so much better than what I remember from City of Bones. You can tell Clare really developed her writing skills and took critiques and notes from others by the time she wrote this. I haven't read anything beyond this and the first 3 original TMI books so I look forward to continuing on and discovering new things. But because the writing in this is better than CoB, I'm worried about re-reading those first 3! But I cannot wait to continue this trilogy! I just never bought the next book when it came out and the next and the next and the next! Now I own all of them so this will be fun!
As for the book itself, man Will is a piece of work in this. I get brooding bad boys but he's kind of a dick the whole book. Will's got some explaining to do! I really did not remember a thing about this from reading it 10 years ago. lol. I've read A LOT of books in the past 10 years. But I really enjoyed rediscovering this book. And the gorgeous cover!! It's all shiny and metallic and so cool. I really loved the original covers on this whole trilogy. Onward!
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Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid 4/5Overdrive Audio.
This book was one of the buzziest books of 2019. And now I see why. The full cast narration was amazing, I would love a cast list, who read for which part! Some voices I recognized (Judy Greer as Karen obviously) but a lot I didn't.
At first I was not a fan of the format. I like watching documentaries, not reading or just listening to them. But I got really into the story that was being told and it ran away with me. Took me to the 1970's to a fledgling rock band, a young woman who didn't necessarily seek stardom, took me past the roads of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll and beyond. We wrote albums, we went on tour, we had babies, we didn't have babies, we argued, we got married, we had lots of sex, we did lots of drugs, and we met lots of fans. What a trip. What a ride. The ending may have gutted me. I didn't expect that.
The songs in the attached PDF were SUCH a treat. Don't miss out on reading those if you pick up the audiobook!! I will definitely be reading more TJR.
6.
Poisoned Apples - Christine Heppermann 5/5Library Hardcover.
Not sure whose books came first but between Christine Heppermann, Rupi Kaur, and Amanda Lovelace, we've got a trifecta of relatable, fractured, unstructured, modern poetry. What makes Heppermann's unique is that she took on fairy tales and made fairy tale retelling poetry. I LOVED the haunting photos scattered throughout the book, they added so much to each poem!! Fabulous collection and looking for more!
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Felicity Carrol and the Perilous Pursuit (Felicity Carrol Mystery #1)- Patricia Marcantonio 4/5
Ovedrive/Libby E-Book.
Our first introduction to Miss Felicity Carrol, a rich, intelligent, beautiful woman who was schooled at the University of London. She's a trifecta, isn't she? Well, she's also an aggravating, nosy, know-it-all, if you ask Detective Jackson Davies (or Griggs as one typo suggested). A fun, interesting, Victorian mystery. Not 100% unpredictable but a good little goose chase. In the same vein as Lady Sherlock by Sherry Thomas, Veronica Speedwell by Deanna Raybourn, and Sarah Bain by Laura Joh Rowland. Amond, I'm sure, a slew of others. I will be reading the second one.
8.
We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World - Malala Yousafzai 5/5Audible.
Another powerful book by Malala Yousafzai. Told by women, girls, forced to flee their homes, their families, their countries because of war, poverty, family upheaval. Brilliant audiobook. Too short!
9.
Paper Girls, Vol. 1 - Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang 4/5Hoopla E-Book.
** Re-Read January 12, 2020 **
4 stars.
I liked it better the second time around. Probably because I took more time with it than last time since last time was during Dewey's and I was all about reading as fast as I could. lol. This is definitely still weird but I'm glad I re-read it and now I will continue on!
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** Originally Read July 28, 2018 **
3 stars.
This was a weird one. lol. I enjoyed it, I think. But it was very off-the-wall. I think I need to read more to figure out how much I like it.
Read during Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon - July.
Elyse wrote: "I liked it better the second time around. Probably because I took more time with it than last time since last time was during Dewey's and I was all about reading as fast as I could. lol. This is definitely still weird but I'm glad I re-read it and now I will continue on!"Eagerly awaiting your reactions.
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Green Lantern: Legacy - Minh Lê, Andie Tong 4/5NetGalley ARC.
I enjoyed this takeoff of Green Lantern. I'm not very familiar with the original story, only saw the terrible Ryan Reynolds movie, but I liked what Minh Lê did with it. I liked the family aspect of it. I also liked the illustrations. It was a good comic.
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The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down - Colin Woodard 4/5Audible.
Nothing particular led me to this book except it was an Audible Daily Deal last year and looked interesting. Some parts were interesting. Some were not. Some were boring. But I enjoyed the narrator a lot. When he described some battle scenes, he was very enthusiastic and I liked how much he got into the content he was reading. It was interesting learning about different pirates but it was a long book.
12.
Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too - Jomny Sun 5/5Home Library Hardcover.
I bought this book last year on a whim. I read it in one sitting this past weekend and loved it. It was silly. It was funny. It was sweet. And then *boom* it hits you with truth bombs like "If you're always happy are you ever truly happy, or is happiness only something we see in you because we know sadness?" Grammar corrected because I can't not spell things correctly. lol. But whaaaat? Amazing. Adorable little comic.
Elyse wrote: "12. Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too - Jomny Sun 5/5Home Library Hardcover..."
Thanks for reminding me about this one! I wanted to read it when I first heard about it, but my library didn't have it at the time. I just checked again and now they do!
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Home Library Hardcover..."
Thanks for reminding me about this one! I wanted to read it when I first heard about it, but ..."
Oh yay! It was so cute but real!!
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You Are Not Alone - Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen 4/5NetGalley ARC.
I didn't like this one quite as much as the duo's previous books but it was still a good, twisty thriller. I had -no- idea what was going on. Who was the bad guy? Who was the good guy? Who can I trust? No one. Trust no one. In any Greer/Pekkanen books. I didn't like some of the "reasoning" behind motives. I hated most of the characters. But all in all, this book kept me on my toes and I needed to keep reading in order to find out what was happening!! So that means a good book! And a book that's hard to talk about for fear of spoilers! I still need to read Pekkanen's solo novels.
14.
The Look-Alike - Erica Spindler 3/5I received a free paperback ARC of The Look-Alike by Erica Spindler from Macmillan in exchange for an honest review. I also received a free e-book ARC from NetGalley.
When you read two thrillers at the same time, it's easy to get them confused. Especially when the other book could've actually been called The Look-Alike and this book didn't really *have* to be called The Look-Alike. I'm not coming up with any better titles, it's the permanent title, but I don't really care for it.
Sienna Scott found a recently murdered body when she was 18. Now she's 28 and coming home from 10 years in London living with her grandmother. Yes, it happens that quickly in the book. Her father has passed away and her mother has a delusional disorder in which she has fears that "bad people" are out to harm Sienna so Sienna has come home to care for her mother. Yikes. I do like the way Spindler handled Viv, Sienna's mom. I don't know much about disorders such as this but I thought Spindler explained it well.
This book reminded me a lot of Final Girls but I can't really go into why because of spoilers. I did find the reasoning behind the original murder to be weak. I rolled my eyes when it all came out. I was expecting the person but not why they did it. Meh. I will be checking out other books by Spindler at some point.
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War and Peas: Funny Comics for Dirty Lovers - Jonathan Kunz & Elizabeth Pich 3/5NetGalley ARC.
There was no rhyme or reason to this comic book. No flow. It was just page after page of random comic strips. Some were funny, some were not. I laughed out loud once or twice. I'd heard of War and Peas and seen a few comics that had been shared on friends' social media over the years but I've never gone to the website, I've never sought them out. And I still won't. It was fine but there is no reason for anyone to pay for this book.
16.
Living with a SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet - Jesse Itzler 3/5Audible.
I wanted to like this more than I did. If it was a regular person I would've liked it more. But Jesse Itzler has 3 houses, multiple successful businesses, and is married to the founder of Spanx. This is not your average person. I did enjoy SEAL. If Jesse portrayed him accurately then SEAL is funny without being purposely funny. I don't really believe in/agree on either of their views on life and living but absolutely to each his own! Live how YOU want to live, not how someone else thinks you should live. It was an entertaining book, mostly because Jesse didn't know what he signed up for. I just didn't care about Jesse being a rapper in the '90's or his business ventures or anything like that.
17.
Demons (Rat Queens Vol. 3) - Kurtis J. Wiebe & Tess Fowler 5/5Home Library Paperback.
Another great installment of Rat Queens. I hear there's disconnect coming in Volume 4. I liked learning about Hannah's history with the Mage University and her father. I like delving into their individual backgrounds. I also really liked the Broog/Braga mini-story at the end. I didn't know/realize their history. I also really liked the artwork in this one.
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The Spaceship Next Door (Sorrow Falls #1) - Gene Doucette 2/5Audible.
I did not like this book. I liked it at first but then it got really weird. Too weird for me. It just didn't make a lot of sense and I don't like books like that! At first it reminded me of Christopher Moore, who also writes weird, but then it kind of just fell apart on me. Trying to be too many things and not nailing any of them.
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Paper Girls Vol. 2 - Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang 4/5Hoopla E-Book.
Ok I finally made it past Vol 1 and into Vol 2! Still weird but in a good way! Getting super weird actually. But I like this group of girls and I really want to find out what is going on. All this time travel stuff is great.
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Paper Girls Vol. 3 - Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matthew Wilson 4/5Hoopla E-Book.
I didn't think it could get weirder. But it certainly did. Another person of that person of that person?! Crazy! Did they go far back in time or way forward in time? And where/when are these other people from? I have to wait till Feb 1 to get the last 3 volumes from Hoopla! My library only allows 3 borrows a month. Luckily it's only a week away!
21.
High Fantasies (Rat Queens Vol. 4) - Kurtis J. Wiebe & Owen Gieni 3/5Home Library Paperback.
Oh nooooo. So I guess there was some domestic violence controversy with the original illustrator. Yikes. Vol. 3 had Tess Fowler illustrating and I loved it! Similar to the previous volumes but a little different. Now we've got a different illustrator for the rest of the series and I don't like it. Not only was the story not streamlined (I know, it's supposed to all connect later on) but the illustrations were too cartoonish. Those aren't my rat queens! :(
Elyse wrote: "21. High Fantasies (Rat Queens, #4) by Kurtis J. Wiebe High Fantasies (Rat Queens Vol. 4) - Kurtis J. Wiebe & Owen Gieni 3/5Home Library Paperback.
Oh nooooo...."
Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the new look either. I might continue with them someday, but this was one of my first favorite comics, so it's extra disappointing. I completely support the decision to get rid of the original artist, but it's still a shame when real life forces these kinds of changes.
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Home Library Paperback.
Oh nooooo...."
Yeah, I wasn't a..."
I wish he'd just kept Tess Fowler! I loved Vol 3's illustrations!
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The Vanishing Season - Joanna Schaffhausen 4/5Overdrive Audio.
Not sure why it's called The Vanishing Season. The title doesn't really make sense to the story. But I did like the story. And I liked the narrator. The book reminded me of If I Run in certain aspects. But this was a pretty gruesome book! I wasn't expecting that. I liked Ellery a lot. She was a strong, badass woman who'd been through hell and was trying to move on. Then someone starts killing people in the same fashion as the person who has haunted Ellery. I didn't see the killer coming! And the setting was Woodbury, MA, it's always fun when book settings are local or semi-local. I have the next two books from NetGalley, the third book is forthcoming.
23.
Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) - Rebecca Roanhorse 5/5Audible.
I loved this book! It gave me Mad Max/Supernatural/Shadowshaper vibes! It was phenomenal! I really liked the narrator of the audiobook, though it seems that a lot of people didn't. Ah well! I give this book 4.75 stars because I want more background. What exactly was the Big Water? Why is it the "Sixth World?" How did the world come to be this way? How far into the future are we from today? You know, little questions. I loved Maggie. I loved Kai. I loved the monsters! Or are they gods? There's a fine line between the two. The clan powers were a very cool aspect and I liked that each clan has different ones. Thank goodness for the audiobook because there are a lot of unfamiliar Native words, including names! But they sound so musical. I immediately got the second book and can't wait to read it! Except that there's no publication date for the third book. Sad days.
24.
Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat - Chrissy Teigen 5/5Kindle.
I've never thought to or wanted to count a cookbook as a book read on GR but I am literally read every single page in this amazing cookbook. Well worth the actual read. Chrissy comes through on every page! I took my time and read through each recipe. Her little paragraphs at the beginning of each recipe are just classic Teigen. lol.
Last night I made Perfect Seared Scallops with Warm Corn Salad and Sour Cream and Broccoli Potato Cakes. It all took a bit longer than I had anticipated and the broccoli needed more time to cook to become mashable so I ended up throwing it, along with the potatoes and sour cream (and other ingredients for the cakes) into my Nutribullet for a quick mix. Worked well. I did not have the frozen corn I thought I did (I ALWAYS have frozen corn...grr!) so it was a warm pea salad. lol. Luckily we both like peas. But all in all, very delicious! The scallops were the shining star.
Tonight's menu will be Rotochick Chicken Noodle Soup!
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The Vanishing Season - Joanna Schaffhausen 4/5Overdrive Audio.
Not sure why it's called The Vanishing Season. The title doesn't really make sense to..."
I have that Cravings cookbook and I love it. One of my best friends gave it to be for Christmas when it came out a couple of years ago.
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The Vanishing Season - Joanna Schaffhausen 4/5Overdrive Audio.
Not sure why it's called The Vanishing Season. The title doesn't really..."
The Rotochick Chicken Noodle Soup was amazing and so flavorful from the rotisserie chicken! I'll never do it another way! Tonight I'm making the Crab Cakes Benedict and Bacon Hash Browns. Mmmm! Love this cookbook and will definitely be getting her second one once I've exhausted this one. lol
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Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe - Stacy King 3/5NetGalley ARC.
I love Poe but maybe not in comic form. Or just not in manga form. This was my first manga and I have to say, I'm not really a fan. Back to front and right to left reading is backwards for me and it's an adjustment. I have two other Manga Classics so I'll get through those and see if it's something I want to continue to read.
26.
Felicity Carrol and the Murderous Menace (Felicity Carrol Mystery #2) - Patricia Marcantonio 4/5NetGalley ARC.
This is the second book in the new Felicity Carrol mystery series. I don't know how many there will be but I'm enjoying them. If you like Deanna Raybourn, Laura Joh Rowland, or Sherry Thomas's Victorian mysteries, Felicity is for you. This book has Felicity crossing the great Atlantic Ocean, and more than half of the continental United States!, in order to get to the bottom of another mystery: Jack the Ripper. At first I was like ugh really? Does every Victorian mystery have to include another iteration of Jack the Ripper? Buuuut this one puts a twist on your standard Ripper fare and moves him to a new country! I really enjoyed Sheriff Pike. He was a good compatriot for Felicity's American jaunt. Can't wait for number 3!
27.
The Other People - C. J. Tudor 3/5NetGalley ARC.
I don't like mixing my supernatural with my mystery/thriller when I haven't been warned about it prior to reading. It's why I didn't LOVE The Outsider or the Bill Hodges trilogy by Stephen King (I read The Outsider before Bill Hodges). But at least with King, you can expect there to always be a supernatural element. I didn't except one in this book and didn't like when it appeared and then built on it. This was my first C. J. Tudor (anyone else not realize she was a female? For some reason I just always expect initialed authors to be male) and I already own The Chalk Man so I will be reading that and now I know that she mixes in her supernatural so maybe I can enjoy that book more. I liked that there was only one question at the end - where did the supernatural junk come from?! All other questions were answered point blank, black and white, in the last 2 chapters. And I didn't really care for the "villain's" reason for setting this whole book into motion. Meh. I have to like why they're doing it, or at least have a good explanation as to why, to be full invested in the book. I hope something like this does not exist on the Dark Web because that is horrifying.
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Not failing!!!! Partially succeeding!
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Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe - Stacy King 3/5NetGalley ARC.
I love Poe but maybe not in comic form. Or j..."
That's funny that we had the opposite reaction to Poe in Manga form. I thought it worked incredibly well! I loved that collection!
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haha thanks!
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Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe - Stacy King 3/5NetGalley ARC.
I love Poe but maybe not in co..."
That is funny! I just don't think I can do manga.
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Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe - Stacy King 3/5NetGalley ARC.
I love Poe but ma..."
I don't read a lot of manga but I have been reading the classics as manga and loved all of them so far!
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Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2) - Charlaine Harris 4/5Audible.
I read Dead Until Dark in 2017 and am *finally* continuing the series. Hoping to finish it this year! I own most of the books in paperback from library sales and the rest I've gotten from Audible. I enjoy the narrator so it will be fun to go back to her after a couple of paperbacks. And now I plan to pick up True Blood again because this books seemed to be very close to the show like the first book was, from what I remember. The bar/club, the church, the menad/maenad, the orgy. You know, the important things. lol. I will probably restart the show though. I only got to Season 2 anyway. The revelation at the end though with Bill gutted me. This is a pretty fluffy series, and sexual, but that was EMOTIONAL.
29.
This Will Only Hurt a Little - Busy Busy Philipps 3/5Overdrive Audio.
I enjoyed Busy Philipps' short-lived talk show, Busy Tonight. She seems like such a warm and friendly person. And damn, girl can talk! So it's no surprise she goes on and on in her book. And on. I enjoyed some parts but a lot of it felt whiny and "poor me." Not her rape or abortion, those were real. But she seems to need more self-awareness, even into her 40's. There are some parts of her book that are problematic (she talked her boyfriend into sexual conduct, that's not okay) and she even specifically said that embellishing stories is something she does. So then it becomes hard to trust her and how authentic she is really being. I guess she only got a book deal because everyone liked her Instagram Stories, she was the pioneer for them apparently. I still don't understand them but w/e. So read this book with caution, with a grain of salt.
30.
Mother Knows Best - Kira Peikoff 5/5Overdrive E-Book.
Wow! What a book! I really enjoyed this one. Even though some of it hit close to home. I thought it would be difficult to read about a couple’s trials and tribulations trying to get pregnant, going through IVF. But it was done well and wasn’t the main focus after the first bit. Then it got a lot farther from personal experience and into a whole thrilling new world! I was intrigued by all of the “science” of it, (obviously it’s not real science...yet), sorry the ethics of it doesn’t bother me, so between that and the twists, I was captivated the whole time. Though at times Abigail didn’t seem like a child. Some things she said wouldn’t come out of a 10-year-old’s mouth. I had an example but now it’s been too long since I finished the book and I forgot it. Lol. But only children are more adult than children with siblings because they spend so much more time with adults. I have seen this firsthand. But I loved this book!
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Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin 3/5Audible.
I tried to enjoy this book, I listened to the audiobook, but it was for me like Angela's Ashes, it was just an everyday accounting of a family. Those kinds of books just don't interest me.
32.
The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo 5/5Library Hardcover.
I loved this book! It was my first novel in poetry form, Ellen Hopkins has been on my TBR for years but I still haven't picked one up yet, and I wasn't sure I was going to like it. But it was beautifully put together and made a lot of sense, which I wasn't sure it would. It was touching and powerful. I loooooved it!! I will definitely be reading Acevedo's first prose book, With the Fire on High or rather listening to her read it herself!
33.
Reveal Me (Shatter Me #5.5) - Tahereh Mafi 5/5Kindle.
I love this novella more than any other Shatter Me book or novella. Kenji is my favorite chararcter and I want so much for him! I want him to be happy, Tehereh!! Please make it so! Soooo ready for Imagine Me!!!
34.
Lies My Girlfriend Told Me - Julie Anne Peters 4/5Overdrive Audio.
I really liked this book about a teenage girl whose girlfriend dies suddenly. The book follows Alix as she deals with Swanee's death and find things out about Swanee that she didn't know, wouldn't have ever dreamed of. Unfortunately, she does something very stupid (I still hate that she did that) that could change her life. This was the first audiobook I added to my Overdrive queue. I'm trying to start from the end of my queue which was started over about EIGHT years ago!!
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Riders (Riders #1) - Veronica Rossi 3/5Overdrive Audio.
I am going to read the sequel because of how much I loved the Under the Never Sky trilogy and because I am a completionist (unless I gave the first book one star) but I was so disappointed with this book. I thought the premise was kind of neat and interesting but I just didn't really like any of the characters or their reasons for doing anything. I didn't like the setup that Gideon is still the story to some officials. I'm hoping the second book will wrap everything up. I hope Rebel Spy is better but it's not really what I'm looking for from Veronica Rossi. I want sci fi/fantasy!
36.
The Vanishing Deep - Astrid Scholte 4/5Won Paperback ARC from BookishFirst.com!
I also won Scholte's first book, Four Dead Queens, from BookishFirst.com! I enjoyed that one and also enjoyed this one! Scholte is quickly cementing herself into the fantasy genre. This book was very unique. It gave me Waterworld and The Little Mermaid vibes. I thought the technology she created where someone can bring back a dead person for 24 hours was really interesting. The world-building was so cool! I could easily visualize the depths Tempe scavenged in, the metal floating islands created to sustain people, and the terrifying, mysterious island of Palindromena where the dead come back to life. I did not know how to pronounce Elysea's name and I'm not a fan of that. Because my brain stumbles over it at every mention. But I really liked this book and I look forward toe Scholte's next one! Keep 'em coming!
37.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven (The Five People You Meet in Heaven #1) - Mitch Albom 5/5Overdrive Audio.
I enjoyed this book so much! I'm not a religious person and I liked how Albom kept it pretty neutral and not over the top on religion. Because to me, Heaven is whatever you want it to be. So this book was just a wonderful little gem. To interact with five people who at some point were in your life and either made an impact on you or you made an impact on them (even unknowingly to you) is very interesting to think about. I loved gruff Eddie so so much. I remember the TV movie with Jon Voight but I never watched it. I may have to look for it.
38.
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven (The Five People You Meet in Heaven #2) - Mitch Albom 4/5Overdrive Audio.
I immediately listened to this sequel after listening to The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Though most people had to wait FIFTEEN YEARS for this sequel!! Sucks for them! lol. Wellllll, it wasn't quite as good. I kind of liked not knowing about Annie, that way we could all make up our own stories for her. Now we have a concrete backstory and there's no wiggle room. I liked it but would've preferred no sequel.
Elyse wrote: "28. Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse #2) - Charlaine Harris 4/5Audible.
I read Dead Until Dark in 2017 and am *finally* continuing ..."
I bought I think the first 7 Sookie Stackhouse books in a box set like 10 years ago and have yet to read any of them! It's one of the series I'm thinking of getting to this year.
Editing to add: and WOW that is one heck of a reading goal!
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Editing to add: and WOW that is one heck of a reading goal!..."
I've been collecting them from library sales the past couple of years and picked up the audiobooks of the 3 or 4 I couldn't find. I definitely want to finish it this year.
Haha thank you! I managed 312 last year but I read a LOT of graphic novels. We'll see this year.
Elyse wrote: "Haha thank you! I managed 312 last year but I read a LOT of graphic novels. We'll see this year."My personal best is 159 in 2018 (and it's still amazing to me that I could read over 150 in a year!!), but that's with some graphic novels, picture books, and generally short-ish novels. So far this year I'm on track for 200 but we'll see if I can keep that pace up!
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Woohoo! You're off to a great start!
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The Colossal Magic Nothing (Rat Queens Vol. 5) - Kurtis J. Wiebe & Owen Gieni 4/5Home Library Paperback.
Well, this was better than Vol 4 but nowhere near the levels of Vol 1-3. The next volume is the last volume by Kurtis J. Wiebe so I'm hesitant to read Vol 6. And I preordered Vol 7 so I own that as well. *le sigh*
40.
The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins 3/5Overdrive E-Book.
Whaaaaat did I just read?! It was kind of too weird for me. It was very dark and disturbing and messy and didn't make a lot of sense and didn't flow well. I got to the point where I just didn't want to pick it back up. I actually did not get to finish it before Overdrive snatched it back and it will be +-16 weeks until I can get it again. I had about 15% left? The important stuff happened. I did not think it was "at once horrifying and hilarious, mind-blowingly alien and heartbreakingly human, sweepingly visionary and nail-bitingly thrilling—and signals the arrival of a major new voice in fantasy." But hey, a lot of people did. It was just TOO STRANGE!
41.
The Go-Between - Veronica Chambers 3/5Audiofile SYNC Program.
Ahhh Camilla was so annoying! Talk about rich and entitled! I didn't think it was the best way to tell an immigrant story, making the main character a rich twit who pretends to be poor because other students assume she is and believe stereotypes. Maybe just be honest from the beginning and instead of playing the "let's see how racist they can be" game? Like Milly said. I liked Milly a lot more than Camilla.
42.
Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys 4/5Audiofile SYNC Program.
I loved the first Sepetys book I read, Salt to the Sea. This was my second book and I liked it but I wanted more. Give me another 50-100 pages please! We are taken through about two years of Lina and Jonah's life, from being taken from their home to working in camps, but the end of the book is so rushed and I was so disappointed!! There was just a glossed over epilogue and that crushed me. I'm in the Overdrive queue for The Fountains of Silence and I own Out of the Easy so I hope to read those soon. Hopefully Fountains is meatier than this one!
I read The Library at Mount Char in 2016, and weirdly remember nothing except how weird it is lol. I gave it 5 stars so I obviously loved it. Strange that it didn't stick with me, although maybe not since my memory is atrocious haha.
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A lot of people have loved and embraced the weirdness of it. But I couldn't. lol. It just didn't make sense!
Elyse wrote: "40. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins 3/5Overdrive E-Book.
Whaaaaat did I just read?!..."
I DNF'd this one several years ago. I know lots of people loved it, but I just couldn't get into it.
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Overdrive E-Book.
Whaaaaat did I just read?!..."
I DNF'd this one several years ago. I ..."
Ahhhh nice thank you!! :) You didn't miss anything by DNFing. lol
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Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano 4/5NetGalley ARC.
What an emotional book!! This was an overwhelmingly sad book that also had me Googling real-life sole survivors of plane crashes. Pretty crazy stuff. Oh did I mention that my husband is doing private pilot training? HA. YIKES. This book is based on 9-year-old Ruben van Assouw who was the sole survivor of Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 on May 12, 2010. 103 lives were lost including Ruben's mother, father, and brother. Heartbreaking. In the book, Eddie-now-Edward also lost his mother, father, and brother. He's sent to live with his childless aunt and uncle who live in another state. The book cover the subsequent few years (3 maybe?) after the plane crash. It's hard to read. There's not a lot of happiness. Shay was a delightful friend that Edward sorely needed. I loved her! I didn't want to pick it up at times because I didn't want to be dragged down. Some parts of the gut, specifically the one part where Edward says that he's okay with his parents' dying (obviously that's not exactly it, that sounds bad lol) because he was supposed to grow up and leave them anyway but Jordan being his brother was always supposed to be there. 😭😭😭😭
44.
Sugar - Deirdre Riordan Hall 4/5Audiofile SYNC Program.
I enjoy reading books that are set in familiar places and I live in the next town over from where Sugar spends a lot of time, Keene, New Hampshire! So cool! Gosh, this book had more meat than I thought it would! Sugar and her family are overweight. Obese. Her mother is so obese that she is bedridden and only gets out of bed, with help, to use the bathroom. She is also a cruel and abusive person, verbally and, if you get too close, physically. Sugar's home life is terrible and she only has one friend who ends up discovering boyfriends and ditches her. Until Even. This book nauseated me with all the junk food and unlikable characters. But it was a beautiful coming-of-age story and also heartbreaking. Sugar doesn't want to abandon her family but the damage she was doing to herself because of her family was ruining her life. Even showed her that. This book hit all the feels.
45.
The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor - Mark Schatzker 4/5Audiofile SYNC Program.
After reading a book about an obese family, Sugar, this was the match-up book for one of the weeks of Audiofile's SYNC program. This book was basically horrifying. How the food we eat is so bland that we pile on the fake flavors to make it taste better and it's basically just terrible for us. But we're addicted to it. Natural flavors, artificial flavors, both are bad! It's incredible and awful to think about. How do we fix this?! Buy from farmer's markets, buy from local farms, get into partnerships with local farmers. We need to change our eating habits one household at a time. No time like the present! Also, I did not know that the first Dorito flavor was taco. 🤣 I think this book would have been too dry for me to read. Audio was perfect. I need to listen to most non-fiction.
46.
Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love - Larry Levin 4/5Overdrive Audio.
Oh Oogy!! You poor thing! I hate people who mistreat animals! And I like animals more than people. I randomly selected a book from my Overdrive wishlist and this audiobook was it! The first chapter was kind of meh. I would've rather had a normal chronological story of Eli/Oogy. Instead the first chapter is a day in the life of the Levin household. Like every minute of their whole morning. Was that really necessary? I guess so because it's already a short book with that long first chapter. Oogy's beginning puppyhood is terrible but he finds his forever home and it was a a cute story. I did have to look up Dogos though. BIG DOGS!!
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Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano 4/5NetGalley ARC.
What an emotional book!! This was an overwhelmingly sad book that also had me Googling real-life sole survivor..."
Ohhhhhh, Sugar .... I need to check this book out. It sounds right up my alley AND it takes place in Keene!
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Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano 4/5NetGalley ARC.
What an emotional book!! This was an overwhelmingly sad book that also had me Googling real-life..."
I know isn't that exciting?! The author must be pretty local! It was a surprising book!
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The Book of Speculation - Erika Swyler 3/5Home Library Paperback.
3.5 stars.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I took some time after I finished it to think about it and I've been wavering between 3 and 4 stars. So I settled on 3.5 and rounded up to 4. I enjoyed the present story of Simon moreso than the past story of the travelling circus. I figured out a lot of the "mystery" early on and so was kind of bored sometimes. Some parts of the book drag and get tedious. There was a litle "magic" to the book but maybe it's all even true and possible. I wouldn't call this a fantasy book at all.
48.
Seeker (Riders #2) - Veronica Rossi 2/5Hoopla Audio.
Ugh. This one was worse than the first one. I'm so incredibly disappointed. This book was just bad but I can't bring myself to give it 1 star. The plot was weak at best and by the end, not much made sense. The original premise seemed so interesting but the execution ended up being pretty awful over the course of two books. If you're going to go Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, you kind of have to go hard. Get religious. You can't have one without the other. I'm not even religious and I wanted more religion! You're going to have the Four Horsemen and demons that are fallen angels but no God or the Devil? Really? Blahhhhhh. And what happened to Raoum (spelling? #audiobookproblems) and the other demons? No resolution. (view spoiler) What the helllllll was even the rift?! Was it Hell? It should have been. Ughhhh. Painful. Annnnd the timing wasn't laid out well.
Something a little nitpicky about the audiobook, it was hard to tell when there were internal thoughts vs. things they were saying out loud. With Daryn it was a little easier, the narrator semi-whispered them but with Gideon I just had no idea and had to wait for the next few lines to determine whether it was internal or not. So that was kind of awkward.
Second thing, about Hoopla audiobooks specifically, you can't change the speed! This was my first audiobook from Hoopla so I didn't know that you couldn't change it. Listening at normal speed is terrible. I will be switching as many audiobooks as I can from Hoopla to Overdrive/Libby now that I know Hoopla does not have this feature. :(
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Hahaha, good luck with that!
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The Book of Speculation - Erika Swyler 3/5Home Library Paperback.
3.5 stars.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I took some time af..."
Wait, I don't remember that! I thought I listened to audiobooks on Hoopla before. I can definitely not do normal speed.
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IDK, I couldn't find it. Maybe the app is different between iOS and Android? I have an Android. It was awful. lol.
75 Books...More or Less!
Books mentioned in this topic
Clockwork Princess (other topics)What Happens in Paradise (other topics)
Bookish and the Beast (other topics)
The Boys, Volume 3: Good For The Soul (other topics)
White Trash Zombie Gone Wild (other topics)
More...
I enjoyed the various smaller challenges I did in 2019 and will participate in them again:
📚 Finish series I've started and are done being written: Series to Finish Challenge
📚 Read as many pre-owned books as possible! Between Read Your Shelves, NetGalley Challenge, and Mount TBR Challenge.
And I've also joined the Virtual Mount TBR Challenge
📚 Keep up on ARCs with NetGalley ARCs Challenge. Limit ARC requests on NetGalley to only read authors and anticipated books.
📚 Keep up on reviews! Write review next day!